


Illyan’s First Press Conference

by Ecarden



Series: Mutants and Mutants [6]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29871909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecarden/pseuds/Ecarden
Summary: Having successfully completed his first mission for the MRD, Illyan needs to make a bit of a splash. He has a really bad idea.
Series: Mutants and Mutants [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172486
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Illyan’s First Press Conference

Illyan chose his target carefully, prowling along the line of police tape the kept the crowd back as the forensics techs went through the house. They entered through the back to avoid the corpse which the medical examiner was already working on.

The MRD windbreaker covered his uniform jacket, ImpSec eyes and weapons, but left his dress uniform pants plainly visible. Their red piping was a shocking splash of color against the black the MRD mostly wore and the dark blue preferred by the local police, which drew a few stares, but he ignored those. Waiting and listening for what he needed.

There were a number of people recording on hand-held devices, but they weren’t what he was looking for. The three people who’d showed up with actual camera crews were more likely to be useful in the long run. Two were female, one male. One of the women was older, though she went to significant effort to hide it. If she was still working the street at this point in her career, she was unlikely to advance, without a big break. The man worked for the only national network (or at least the only network whose name appeared in his chip’s records) and could be more immediate useful. In turn, the younger woman was actually extremely young for an on-camera position (based on a quick comparison to all such reports he’d seen since arriving). That suggested ambitious or connected. Being out here as the night wore on into darkness said ambitious. Any of them could be useful and used.

He paused behind the older woman as she spoke into the camera, “…still no update from the police, or MRD what’s brought the international agency to the suburbs—”

“You might ask,” Illyan noted blandly from behind her.

She casually glanced over her shoulder, noting the windbreaker and her eyes widened and she turned back to the camera, smiling broadly. “Well, it appears we have an MRD agent willing to go on the record, let’s hear what happened.” Advancing on him in a manner which was fairly predatory, she shoved the microphone at his face so fast he almost ducked. “What happened here, agent?”

“As part of an investigation into a series of rapes, assaults, thefts and murders, the MRD discovered that the perpetrator was apparently Oliver Jameson, making use of his mutant ability to swap his own consciousness into other people, while they were trapped in his body. He would then commit crimes in their bodies, before returning to his own and leaving them to face the consequences for his actions. Our investigation led us to Mr. Jameson. We confirmed the presence of stolen items, as well as an area that matched the descriptions given by his victims. Based on the risk to the public and the presence of a potential hostage, I ordered my team’s sniper to shoot Mr. Jameson in the head, killing him. At that point we confirmed that he had not managed to escape into another body. We will be processing the scene for some time yet. I apologize for the inconvenience to the neighbors.”

Whatever the first reporter had expected, it wasn’t that. She blinked, but before she could follow up, the younger woman shoved her way in. Clearly deciding this was a press conference, not an interview, she pressed her microphone forward as well. “Susan Grant, KRP News. You say you confirmed that the mutant hadn’t escaped to another body. How did you do that?”

“Based on the crimes committed, it is clear that Mr. Jameson did not gain the knowledge of the bodies he possessed. In several instances he needed to talk or force other people into opening safes or bypassing security that the owner of the body he was in could have accessed. Therefore, before any agents went anywhere near him we produced simple call-and-response security measures to confirm they retained their own memories.”

“Sorry, call-and-response?” Susan asked.

“Chosen and memorized code-words, which the other agent responds to with a specific second code word.”

“Oh, like out of the old movies,” the older reporter said, then belatedly introduced herself. “Felicia Board, INX News.”

“If that helps. I’m afraid I haven’t seen many films.”

“Why weren’t the local police informed in advance?” Susan asked, wresting back control.

“In accordance with the treaty establishing the MRD and standard operating procedure, in order to minimize risk to non-MRD personnel, dealing with mutant criminals remains the sole purview of the MRD. Given standard police tactics most likely would have led to a massacre in this instance, that appears to be the correct path.”

“How long has this been going on?” Felicia shoved right back in. At this point Illyan noticed that the national newsman was trying to get over to the group but was having a bit of trouble as other camera crews and some of the crowd were in his way.

“His crime spree has been going on for approximately five years.”

“Why so long to catch him?” Susan pushed.

“Unfortunately, it took a long time for the pattern to emerge from apparently unrelated reports by criminal defendants. Even when the pattern was clear it took some time to find a path that lead back to Mr. Jameson. However, I believe my team has performed with exemplary efficiency once the investigation was turned over to us.”

“When was your team assigned?”

“Two days ago.”

“How did you solve this in two days?”

“As I said, _we_ were working from a file prepared by our predecessors, but with my team assigned we had the personnel to examine all the sites of the possessions. Inspection of the area revealed that the security cameras covered all areas in question were installed by the same company. That was sufficient to gain us a warrant which revealed a tap in their system, leading to Mr. Jameson. That was sufficient to gain a warrant for the home. With that done, two agents distracted Mr. Jameson while a third entered his home, discovering the evidence needed to confirm he was responsible.”

"What security company?" Susan asked.

"By the terms of the warrant, I cannot reveal that information until this matter is entirely resolved." 

“Based on the statements of neighbors, it appears that your agents were disguised as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Are you concerned that this ruse may result in real Jehovah’s Witnesses being attacked?” Susan just kept pushing. Perhaps he should push back?

“I wasn’t until you chose to publicize that fact on live television, Ms. Grant. You might consider that your power is a responsibility, not merely a privilege.”

She blinked at that, his tone making it a surprisingly painful rebuke.

“You said the reports came from criminal defendants. If they were truly possessed by the mutant, shouldn’t they be freed?” Felicia jumped in.

“That’s a question for local authorities, but we will be providing copies of the files and evidence to the police and prosecutors.”

“What about others who didn’t report in?”

“That is outside the MRD’s jurisdiction, but the courts will need to address it just as they do any other claim of innocence due to external interference. An obvious place to start would be with a timeline of Mr. Jameson’s movements.”

The third reporter had finally made it around and through the crowd. “Carl Rivera, CNN. Do you have confirmation that he was a mutant?”

“Two field tests agree. Final tests will be taken once the body is removed.”

“But you did not have that confirmation when you neutralized him?”

“I did not have confirmation when I ordered him killed, no.”

“Is there a distinction between those two things?” Susan recovered enough to jump in when challenged by CNN.

“If you need to use a euphemism for what you are doing than you probably should not be doing it. For reasons of morality or maturity.”

Carl flushed at that, but given the situation didn’t fire back. “How did your agent feel about being ordered to fire on someone who he couldn’t be certain was a mutant?”

“You’d have to ask him.”

“How did you feel to give the order?”

“I am uncertain of the relevance of my feelings. However, given the evidence and the crimes committed, I felt concern for the local civilians and my agents as if he had seen the threat coming there was every possibility of his escape and continuing his crime spree.”

“MRD policy is often critiqued as heavy-handed. Or shoot-first-ask-questions-never. How would you respond to that?” Felicia asked.

“MRD policy is set by the Oversight Board, which the U.S. has representation on. If changes are appropriate, that is the way to set them. I do not have a personal position on agency policy on agency time.”

“And off the clock?”

“I still don’t have any comment. Sorry, but any concerns I may, or may not have would be raised internally, not via the press.”

“Well, then, turning to this incident. Was there no other way to do this then shoot a mutant in the head in broad daylight on a suburban street?” Felicia pressed.

Illyan frowned slightly. “I hoped there was. Balancing the risks, I originally hoped we could withdraw once we had confirmation and move in while Mr. Jameson was sleeping, sedate him and remove him to the Icebox during his trial. Unfortunately, the unexpected presence of a comatose civilian tipped the balance of risk to the public to an unacceptable degree.”

“How so?”

“The vast majority of his possessions of people outside his house occurred during the day, with only one potential incident occurring at night. That made the risk fairly low that he would assault anyone else before we could arrest him. However, we had no information on how often he possessed his prisoner or what he did with her. Though I was willing to accept an increased risk to MRD agents to attempt to arrest him, I could not make that choice for a civilian prisoner.”

“What do you think of Senator Kelly’s new bill to require testing for access to public school?”

“The MRD has no position on local legislation.”

“Does the mutant have any family?” Susan had fully recovered and clearly decided she had been outflanked on hostility to him, so was trying to position herself as the most hostile to mutants.

“Why do you ask?” Illyan countered.

“The public has the right to know if there are other mutants in the area.”

“No. The public does not. In accordance with federal law and agreed upon policy, test results for any non-criminal persons are private medical information and revealing them is a crime.”

“But you don’t know if his family are mutants, I just asked about whether he had any.”

“And I asked why that is any of your business. If you wish to engage in some voyeuristic examination of any existing family members reaction you are free to do so, but I decline your kind offer to participate. I do hope that you will remember the power and platform you hold when you do so, but that is entirely up to you, Ms. Jones.”

There was a grumble of anger from the crowd at that, they wanted a target.

Carl built on that anger, “Any sign that the X-Men or Brotherhood were involved in this?”

“None. And it seems unlikely.”

“What do you mean? The Brotherhood call themselves the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, this sounds plenty evil.”

“The Brotherhood and the X-Men are terrorist organizations. Their actions are aimed at effecting the political change they desire. Random violence isn’t common for either, though the Brotherhood has occasionally used such to distract from other actions, or damage society's trust in the MRD. I considered the possibility that this might be intended to cover up for assassinations, or funding via the thefts, but neither seems probable. We’ve found the items stolen in his house and the violence appears to have been truly random. What we have here is a man who discovered he had power and chose to abuse it. Evil? Yes. Organized? No.”

Felicia cut in at that point, “Given the threat this lone mutant posed, I for one am grateful that you dealt with him.” There was a rumble of agreement at that, but still an undercurrent of anger.

“You don’t have to thank me, Ms. Board. It is quite literally my job. The MRD are public servants, here to protect you against criminal mutants. Any suspected sightings should be reported to the MRD, so that we can investigate and take appropriate action, within the law. Unfortunately, I have to get back to work. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's a bit of a hard line to walk, because in the marvel universe its clear that most people are horrible assholes about mutants, but they're also just generally assholes.
> 
> Comments are welcome.


End file.
